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Under Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame has lost at home against the likes of Marshall, Northern Illinois and Stanford. He’s only been a head coach for three years and, largely due to Notre Dame’s status as an independent, has yet to win a championship of any sort. In the grand scheme, none of that matters.
At just 39 years old, Freeman is already one of the top three coaches in college football. He has steadily improved at the helm of one of college football’s most storied institutions. He is 5-0 in his last five postseason games with the Fighting Irish. Now, he has Notre Dame on the precipice of its first national title in almost 40 years.
Freeman has put together a coaching masterclass to get the Irish this far. Many wrote them off after that early season loss to Northern Illinois. It certainly added a tremendous amount of pressure and eliminated any margin of error for Notre Dame. But Freeman took that pressure and made a diamond.
Notre Dame is riding a 13-game winning streak into its College Football Playoff National Championship showdown against his alma mater, Ohio State. Eleven of those wins, including two playoff games, have come by at least two possessions.
That’s not all. Notre Dame outlasted a majority of the FBS while missing several key players due to injury. Cornerback Benjamin Morrison — a potential first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft — has been out since October. Notre Dame lost sack leader Rylie Mills for the season against Indiana. He was the third starting defensive lineman to suffer a season-ending ailment.
Top offensive lineman Charles Jagusah tore his pectoral muscle less than a month before the season began. He was pressed into action in the College Football Playoff semifinal against Penn State when Notre…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-playoff-overreactions-notre-dames-marcus-freeman-among-elite-emeka-egbuka-keys-ohio-state/
Author : Will Backus
Publish date : 2025-01-11 14:52:00
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